Help:Editing
On a wiki, it is customary to allow readers to edit content and structure. This is a brief overview of the editing process. Editing basics Review policy and conventions :Make sure that you submit information which is relevant to the Prison Break theme of the wiki, or your content might be deleted. You can always use the talk pages to ask questions or check to see if your idea will be accepted. Start editing :To start editing a page, click the Edit link. This brings you to the edit page: a page with a text box containing the wikitext - the editable code from which the server produces the finished page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the Sandbox, not here. Type your changes :You can just type your text. However, also using basic wiki markup (examples of which can be found below) adds to the value of your contribution. Summarize your changes :Write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in Wikipedia's edit summary legend. Preview before saving :When you have finished, click Show preview to see how your changes will look before you make them permanent. Repeat the edit/preview process until you are satisfied, then click Save page and your changes will be immediately applied to the article. Dummy edit and null edit :If the wikitext is not changed, no edit will be recorded and the edit summary is discarded. A dummy edit is a change in wikitext that has no effect on the rendered page, such as changing the number of newlines at some position from 0 to 1 or from 2 to 3 or conversely (changing from 1 to 2 makes a difference, see below). This allows an edit summary, and is useful for correcting a previous edit summary, or an accidental marking of a previous edit as "minor" (see below). :To refresh the cache of some item in the database a lesser kind of dummy edit, called a null edit, may be sufficient: one that does not cause any change in the wikitext, and no entry in the history, in Recent Changes, etc.: this can be done by opening the edit window and saving; a section edit is sufficient. Minor edits :When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option of flagging the edit as a "minor edit". This feature is important, because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level. :Deciding when to use this features is a matter of personal preference. The rule of thumb is that an edit of a page that consists of spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text should be flagged as a "minor edit". A major edit is basically something that makes the entry worth revisiting for somebody who wants to watch the article rather closely. So any "real" change, even if it is a single word, should be flagged as a "major edit". :The reason for not allowing a user who is not logged in to mark an edit as minor is that vandalism could then be marked as a minor edit, in which case it would stay unnoticed longer. This limitation is another reason to log in. Wiki markup In the left column of the table below, you can find a series of Wiki markup examples. In the right column, you can see the resulting output. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the right column, type it in the format you see in the left column. You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox. Basic formatting Sections, lists, lines, and footnotes Links and URLs Images, media, and tables | style="border:1px solid #CEDFF2; background:white" | |} HTML tags You can use some HTML tags as well. However, you should avoid HTML in favor of Wiki markup whenever possible. Character formatting Preformatted text A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki software to display your text just as you typed it. Templates :Templates are segments of Wiki markup that are meant to be automatically ("transcluded") into a page. You add them by putting the template's name in . Some templates take parameters, as well, which you separate with the pipe character. Tips and tricks Page protection :In a few cases, where an Administrator has protected a page, the link labeled "Edit" is replaced by the text "View source". In that case, the page can only be edited by an administrator. Protection of an image page includes protection of the image itself. To ask that a page be either protected or unprotected, see Prison Break Wiki:Requests for page protection. Edit conflicts :If someone else makes an edit while you are making yours, the result is an edit conflict. Many conflicts can be automatically resolved by the Wiki. If it can't be resolved, however, you will need to resolve it yourself. The Wiki gives you two text boxes, where the top one is the other person's edit and the bottom one is your edit. Merge your edits into the top edit box, which is the only one that will be saved. Reverting :The edit link of a page showing an old version leads to an edit page with the old wikitext. This is a useful way to restore the old version of a page. However, the edit link of a diff page gives the current wikitext, even if the diff page shows an old version below the table of differences. Error messages :If you get an error message upon saving a page, you can't tell whether the actual save has failed or just the confirmation. You can go back and save again, and the second save will have no effect, or you can check "My contributions" to see whether the edit went through. Checking spelling and editing in your favorite editor :You may find it more convenient to copy and paste the text first into your favorite text editor, edit and spell check it there, and then paste it back into your web browser to preview. This way, you can also keep a local backup copy of the pages you have edited. It also allows you to make changes offline. :If you edit this way, it's best to leave the editing page open after you copy from it, using the same edit box to submit your changes, so that the usual edit conflict mechanism can deal with it. If you return to the editing page later, please make sure that nobody else has edited the page in the meantime. If someone has, you'll need to merge their edits into yours by using the diff feature in the page history. External links Wikimedia Meta-Wiki *Help:Editing *Help:Edit toolbar *Help:Wikitext examples *Help:Editing tips and tricks *Help:Starting a new page *Help:Link *Help:URL *Help:Piped link *Help:Interwiki linking *Help:Footnotes *Help:List *Help:Table *Help:HTML in wikitext *Help:Images and other uploaded files *Help:Section *Help:Category *Help:Redirect *Help:Moving a page *Help:Reverting *Help:Displaying a formula *Help:Magic words *Help:Template Wikia *Help:Introduction *Help:Tutorial 1 Wikipedia *Wikipedia:How to edit a page *Wikipedia:Editing FAQ *Wikipedia:Tutorial *Wikipedia:Picture tutorial *Wikipedia:Extended image syntax